YouTube Red commissions first UK drama from The Crown creators

YouTube Red commissions first UK drama from The Crown creators

Andy Harries' Left Bank Pictures has secured the first major series to be released on YouTube Red.

YouTube Red has commissioned its debut drama, which will be a sci-fi series from Left Bank Pictures who produced The Crown for Netflix.

They have agreed a deal for Origin, a 10 part sci-fi thriller, created and written by Mika Watkins who has previously written for Sky 1's Stan Lee’s Lucky Man.

At a recent RTS Futures event, the topic of what YouTube meant for the future of television was discussed.

Janine Smith, head of digital entertainment, comedy and drama at ITV told the audience, "the boundaries between online and traditional telly may be blurring but just because it’s on a screen that isn’t in the corner of your living room, doesn’t mean it’s not television.”

YouTube’s former Senior Director Stephen Nuttall spoke at another RTS event last November stating that television was resilient and that it always seizes the opportunities that new technology brings.

He added: "In the past, if you were a UK broadcaster or production company it was probably hard to have distribution beyond the UK,” he said. “Now thanks to platforms like YouTube and others, you can reach a global audience.”